Latest from San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory

A research and education organization dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats through science and outreach, and to contributing to informed resource management decisions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A self-described "bird evangelist," Alvaro Jaramillo loves to share his lifelong passion for birds both locally and on tours throughout the Americas. Born in Chile, Alvaro began birding in Toronto, where he lived as a youth. Asked why birds got his attention, Alvaro says, "They're easy to relate to -- you can see them, you can hear them sing. There's always a bird around!"

We mostly see egrets and herons standing silently in shallow wetlands, on the hunt. But a group of dedicated citizen scientists makes a point to watch them in their nesting colonies, sometimes in seemingly unlikely spots. Join us on a trip to a heronry near Cordelia.

In December 2010, Kay Kerr died at 99 years old. Kerr, along with Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick, founded the Save San Francisco Bay Association. Now, Save the Bay is turning 50 and turning out as many volunteers as ever. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory marks 30 years of its critical work banding and studying birds.

Gulls don’t inspire the awe that a golden eagle or red-tailed hawk does. Or the affection we feel for hummingbirds. But the Bay Area’s dozen gull species are true survivors: Adaptable, voracious predators, they breed by the thousands in the South Bay and at the Farallones, and it takes some determined biologists to keep an eye on them.

Clad in bike helmets and ratty clothes, staff and volunteers with the San Francisco Bird Observatory brave the South Bay's raucous seagull nesting colonies, where the explosion of breeding gulls threatens to push aside less aggressive species.